Niches Within a Niche

Family travel has become central to the leisure market and many travel advisors have made it a specialty, but there are multiple niches within that segment, including groups. To get some tips on selling to this clientele, we spoke to a travel advisor, a family travel expert and a resort operator to get their perspectives.

Referral Business

Andrea Joyce, who has a Dream Vacations franchise in Somers, N.Y., gets most of her family business from current clients. “I have a lot of older clientele and they’re getting to an age where they want to travel with kids and grandkids, so a lot of the business is multigenerational,” she said. “It has become so difficult for families to do on their own with all the different packages, fare codes and different kinds of ships. You are really lost without a travel agent.”

Joyce tells clients about programs like Royal Caribbean International’s My Time Dining, which allows children to eat in 40 minutes before going to a kids’ club while parents and grandparents enjoy a leisurely meal. “I always say the first cruise is the hardest to sell, so I often put people on a port close to where they live to keep costs down. Once they go, they get the bug and usually keep going,” she said.

Passing Perks on to Families

Joyce noted that she always gives back group and other perks to clients—including extra cabins, onboard credits and so forth. While she could keep them as commission, she said she prefers to pass the perks on to clients to make them loyal customers.

Nancy Schretter, president of Beacon Group Holdings and founder of the Family Travel Network, said that multigenerational travel continues to be a growing force, citing Virtuoso picking it as the top leisure travel trend for 2020. She said the annual MMGY Global Portrait of American Travelers showed that close to 45 percent of grandparents travel with grandchildren, and a large percentage plan to do that in the near future.

Agreeing is Gary Sadler, senior vice president of sales at Unique Vacations Inc., the sales and marketing arm of Sandals Resorts International, of which Beaches Resorts is a unit. He said Beaches Resorts offers experiences for grandparents and grandchildren no matter the grandchild’s age—from the exclusive Caribbean Adventures with Sesame Street and Pirates Island Waterpark to unlimited land and watersports. “We have already seen an increase in grandparent-grandchild trips,” said Sadler, “and we’re planning on offering more ‘skipgen’ specific packages in the future to better cater to this audience.”

Special Events for Families

At Beaches Resorts, said Sadler, special events are hosted throughout the year based on niche interests in multiple areas that can appeal to all families. These range from limited-edition sports events, such as Real Madrid Foundation soccer clinics, to the voluntourism trend of giving back while on vacation through the Sandals Foundation.

And just because a client doesn’t have children, doesn’t mean they are not potential family travel clients, said Schretter. In that vein, one more market to be aware of is PANKS (Professional Aunts, No Kids) and PUNKS (Professional Uncles, No Kids).

For those agents who are not well versed in selling family travel, suppliers feature sales and marketing tools to help them increase sales. Sandals Travel Agent Portal serves as a hub for agents to have everything they need to complete and maximize a sale, Sadler said.

Selling Tips

—Involve all family members in planning the trip. “Kidfluence” has become huge, said Beacon Group Holdings’ Nancy Schretter. “If everyone in the family is involved, it creates buy-in from the get-go.”

—Promote “skip-gen” travel—grandparents traveling with grandchildren without parents involved. It’s a way to gain one-on-one bonding and to “give parents a break,” Schretter said.

—Seek out grassroots opportunities in your own backyard, including local schools, Girl Scout events, bridal shows, travel expos, etc., recommended Gary Sadler of Unique Vacations Inc.